Government needs to be tech savvy with rural plan

It is laughable in today’s world to imagine a time when mobile devices simply did not exist yet that was just 36 years ago, writes Joe Gill.

I was talking with a colleague this week about the last time we had really cold weather. She remembered 1982 when it was not possible to come to work but she could not contact her boss.

At the time there was no such thing as a mobile phone and she had no phone at home as it took about 12 months on a waiting list to get one.

How fast things change. It is laughable in today’s world to imagine a time when mobile devices simply did not exist yet that was just 36 years ago.

Imagine what could be happening 36 years from now if the pace of change continues at the rate of recent decades.

Technology, and in particular computer power, has evolved exponentially so what might appear far-fetched today could be a reality much sooner than we all envisage.

Accordingly, brainstorming and planning for life in rural Ireland has to be undertaken through a more enlightened lens that is obvious in recent debates.

There are some glaring economic facts to be considered around this matter. I can find you a fine family home on a small plot of land near rural towns in a first world economy for about €300,000 this morning.

Yet, a frenzy of borderline panic has set in for employers and employees, alike, about housing in the Dublin area. Frantic house hunting is occurring less than one-to-two hours’ car travel from locations that have open space and moderate to low rents and house prices.

Main street commercial buildings are lying idle across rural Ireland while tenants are climbing over themselves to find space in the Dublin area.

If I work in a company near Amsterdam and have 24/7 online support from a global IT company based in Ireland do you think it matters whether that support is in Dublin or Tralee?

My only sensitivity would be around the speed and reliability of the broadband connection linking my computer with the service provider. In fairness, although there is a huge amount of work to be done enabling all of rural Ireland to have top notch connectivity positive progress is evident in many towns.

I bet within 10 years Ireland will be super connected to the global web across all regions. Moreover, in a decade’s time solar and wind energy technologies will have advanced even further to allow individual homes to have sustainable low cost power.

Ground transport will have been migrated to hybrid or 100% electric vehicles and those automobiles will contain high levels of self-driving capabilities. Homes will have much stronger technology kits that help with security and independent living.

This package has the potential to reverse the persistent degradation of rural society. It provides a platform on which to build an entirely new concept of living and one that is in tune with the needs and opportunities for decades ahead.

It can provide instant connectivity with friends, relatives and customers because by 2050 your mobile device will be so sophisticated and efficient it will be possible to socialise, communicate and do business at a different level from what pertains today.

If I told my friend in 1982 that she could use, before her middle age, a hand-held device to speak while looking at friends, find any street or town on a moving map and send and receive emails while taking photos and videos she would have ordered an ambulance.

The same trajectory of progress is clearly in sight over the next three decades and that can forever change the way we manage and live in those areas that sit outside the booming capital of Ireland.

Sometimes it feels like our politicians and planners are behind the pace of changes being engineered by technology.

Getting ahead of that curve is something urgently required because doing so can dramatically and positively change the fortunes of rural Ireland.

Joe Gill is a director of corporate broking with Goodbody Stockbrokers. His views are personal.